Author: Lyla Mehta

About Lyla Mehta

Research Fellow

Lyla is a sociologist whose work has largely focused on issues concerning knowledge, power, rights and access in natural resource management, addressed through the case of water. Research areas include global and local responses to water scarcity and, more recently, community-led total sanitation. She is a Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies.

All posts by Lyla

by Sam Geall, Wei Shen, Lyla Mehta and Peter Newell This is one in a series of four blog posts exploring ideas and case studies on ‘transformations’, drawing on research carried out in 2017 and looking forward to the STEPS Centre’s work in 2018. For background and links to the other posts, read the introduction….

by Hans Nicolai Adam, Lyla Mehta and D. Parthasarathy, Climate Change, Uncertainty and Transformation project As Houston was inundated by ‘biblical’ rainfall and grapples with extreme flooding and its aftermath, another coastal megacity on the other side of the globe also experienced destructive flooding, albeit on a lesser scale. Within the span of a couple…

For the past two decades, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been the dominant paradigm in water resources. It is the flagship project of global bodies such as the Global Water Partnership (GWP). It has also been actively promoted by a range of multilateral and bilateral donors which consider it to be the path to address water governance…

In the Narmada valley in western India, displaced people and activists are protesting against displacement, submergence and the violation of their basic rights. 20 activists, including Alok Agarwal, senior activist of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement), have been standing or sitting waist-deep in the submergence waters of the Omkareshwar dam in Madhya…

By Lyla Mehta, STEPS Centre Member The World Water Forum means many different things to different people. For the many so called water warriors and activists attending the event and organising alternative water justice events at Taksim Square, the Forum lacks legitimacy because it is organised by the World Water Council, a private think tank…

By LYLA MEHTA , STEPS Centre member Every three years, the water community gathers together for the Water Water Forum. This year’s Water Water Forum is in Istanbul from March 16 – 22. Are such global meetings a big circus or can something meaningful emerge? Photo credit: Crispin Hughes / Panos My colleagues and I…